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A S E R M O N 



PREACHED ON THE DEATH OF 



WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 



LATE 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 



BY THE 



. ^C 



REV. ALEXANDER T. McGILL. 



CARLISLE, PA. 



/ 

THE 

PRESENCE OF GOD y /J " 

A 

PEOPLE'S PROSPERITY: 

A SERMON 

PREACHED ON SUNDAY MORNING, APRIL 11,1841, 

IX THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AT CARLISLE, PA. 

Being the first Sabbath after the Decease of 

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 

LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 



y 

By ALEXANDER T. McGILL, 



II 

PASTOR OF THE CnCRCH. 



U.S. A, ^^-jj 



PHILADELPHIA: 

WILLIAM S. M ARTIE N 
■■^' 1841. 



S E R M O N. 



2 Chronicles xv. 2. 



And he went out to meet Asa, and said unto him, Hear ye me, Asa, and all Judah and 
Benjamin ; the Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be 
found of you ; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. 



Men should exult cautiously. Nations should " rejoice with 
trembling," and remember Him, in whose hand they " are 
counted as the small dust of the balance." Asa, and the peo- 
ple of Judah, had just obtained a signal victory over a host of 
Ethiopians. As they were returning, flushed with triumph, 
Azariah, the son of Oded, met them with the words of the 
text. He saw how confident of long and increasing glory 
were the people and their rulers; how full of ardent purpose, 
and vainglorious project; how many a bold adventure, or pro- 
found stroke of policy they meditated; how intent they were 
on every object but that which was of the utmost importance, 
even to the successful prosecution of worldly ends, the appro- 
bation of God, his presence, and counsel, and upholding favour. 
Yet he was not wholly forgotten. Asa was a pious king, 
though he died of a disease in his feet; for, '• in his disease he 
sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians." It is not total 
indifference to God only, that makes him jealous and angry. 
It is the secondary regard with which we rely on his favour; 
it is the cold deference with which we acknowledge his exist- 
ence and supremacy, while we lean with main dependence on 
ourselves, for the accomplishment of what we implored him 
to bless. Without a particular explanation of the several 
members and phrases of the verse before us, we observe, the 
great lesson obviously taught is, that all our prosperity as a 
nation, depends on the presence of God with us, — a presence 



which it is vain to expect without seeking him, and cleav- 
ing to him sincerely. The subject is thus divided into two 
parts: 

First, the benefit proposed, Divine presence with a people. 

Second, the condition, or pre-requisite in them. 

I. The Divine presence, promised here, is not the essential 
presence of God, the absolute innnensity of being, according 
to which he is naturally and necessarily present with all his 
creatures. Nor is it the common presence of his Providence, 
by which he upholds, with immediate exertion of power and 
goodness, all his creatures, and all their actions. It is the pre- 
sence of a special Providence for good, attended with peculiar 
and benign good-will to a nation as such, making every event, 
even visibly the most adverse, subserve the real and ultimate 
welfare of that people. It is distinguished also from what is 
called, "the covenanted presence of God," with his own peo- 
ple individually and collectively. 

The presence here proposed is contingent, suspended, as you 
see, on a condition, or pre-requisite in the people themselves; 
but the presence of God in covenant with any people, or per- 
son, is absolute, resting on no contingency in them; resting on 
merit without them, above them infinitely, the atoning and in- 
terceding merit of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to the 
covenant of grace, the language is not " if ye forsake him, he 
will forsake you," but "I will never leave thee, nor forsake 
thee." 

Again, the presence offered in the text, is offered to the 
whole body of the people, "Asa, and all Judah, and Benja- 
min," but we know they were not all Israel who were of 
Israel; the etfectual grace of the coveimnt was not extended to 
thousands of that people. And besides, the presence here pro- 
posed is partial, for a particular purpose, that they should be 
prospered, as a nation, in all their pursuits at home, and con- 
flicts abroad: but the presence of God in covenant grace and 
faithfulness is for universal purposes, for all spiritual blessings, 
as well as true temporal prosperity. 

From all this distinction we conclude that, although the Di- 
vine presence, mentioned here, is inseparable from the admin- 
istration of the covenant of grace, the objects of its benefit are 



not precisely the same. Many of tlieni may be utter strangers 
to the saving grace of the Divine presence. They are the citi- 
zens of a nation collectively. Wc, therefore, define the presence 
promised in the text to be, a special and gracious interposition 
of Divine Providence in behalf of a people at all times, so as 
to bless them, and do them good, though, as individuals, many 
of them, perhaps a majority, may be living and dying beneath 
his curse. 

II. We now notice the second part of our subject, viz. the 
condition, or pre-requisite in the people. What is that abi- 
ding with God, that seeking, and not forsaking of him, which is 
here insisted on as the term of his benignant and prospering 
Providence with them. 

First, Saving faith among the people. There must be many 
citizens among them who are saints of the INIost High God, 
who are righteous men evangelically, having made peace with 
God through Jesus Christ. It is clear as an axiom in the Bible, 
that God dispenses no blessing, either on a nation or an indivi- 
dual, which does not flow through Jesus Christ. Out of him, 
all his dealing with any commonwealth must be angry and 
vengeful. Who will say, that the outward prosperity of a 
heathen nation is indicative of God's real presence, with that 
kind of Providence we have just defined, a Providence making 
every event, adverse and prosperous, subserve their ultimate 
welfare? Who has not seen in the history of the past, that the 
most palmy condition of a people, who know not God and Je- 
sus Christ whom he hath sent, is the condition of decay, the 
seed time of dissolution ? The only season of health and vigour 
was one of war, and bloodshed, and horror, when conquerors 
through seas of blood, and tears of the widow and orphan, 
through countries laid waste, and cities in ashes, bore the ban- 
ners of the nation to victory and glory — banners which arc 
seen beneath the feet of those conquerors, as soon as sunny 
peace shone upon the people. When the Roman empire at 
length arrived at peace, and art, and science, and literature 
flourished with unparalleled prosperity, the liberties of Rome 
were gone, the constitution and the senate were an empty form 
beneath the despotic arm of Cresar Augustus. Always have 
nations that are not truly Christian, been cursed both in pros- 
1* 



perity and adversity. The one is ever deceitful, the other truly 
calamitous. 

A nation is composed of individuals. No individual can 
have peace and prosperity with God, who is not interested in 
the Saviour by a justifying faith; therefore, no nation can have 
such prosperity, that does not embrace among her citizens 
many who are genuine believers. But how many? What 
proportion in numbers must believers bear to unbelievers, in 
order to season the lump, to be as salt to the commonwealth, 
or as pillars to bear up the land? We cannot tell, otherwise 
than by consulting the history of the past, and especially the 
dealing of God with one ancient nation, that seemed to have 
been chosen from others, not only as the visible Church, but 
as a political organization, to display in their annals the dis- 
pensation, according to which he will deal with bodies politic 
while the world endures. In the life of the great father of that 
nation, we learn that it requires few, very few " righteous 
men," to avert, for a time, the fiery judgments of heaven. 
The cities of the plain might have escaped a while longer, if 
but ten genuine saints, among all the thousands of Sodom, 
could have been found. But more faith, obviously, is required 
to conciliate the favour of God, than to procure his forbear- 
ance. A greater proportion of true believers is needed to 
secure for a nation, benign and all-prospering Providence, than 
to stay the avenging arm of Jehovah, and obtain for her a 
lengthened respite from the utmost execution of his wrath. 
Perhaps the following passage in Isaiah vi. IS, reveals more 
precisely than any other, this proportion : " But yet in it shall 
be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a tail-tree, 
and as an oak, whose substance is in them when they cast 
their leaves, so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof." 
But it is not enough that this " tenth" in the land be believers 
in Jesus Christ, to be the holy seed and substance of a country. 
" If the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted?" 
If they are not Christian citizens — if they do not exercise the 
religion of Christ in the choice of rulers, choosing men who 
fear God, and hate covetousness, if they are not engaged in 
praying for their rulers, and faithfully protesting at all times 
against the sins of the land, and loudest of all, against the sins 
of party, even their own favourite men and measures — if, in 



short, they are Christians in every thing but politics, they are 
insipid salt, lliey are sleeping Jonahs in the ship, they are first 
and chief in bringing down the judgments of heaven on a de- 
voted nation. " You only have I known of all the families of 
the earth, therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities." 

It is a fearfully mischievous maxim of the present day, 
baneful alike to church and state, that " Religion has nothing 
to do wilh politics." Religion nothing to do with politics? 
That is, God in Christ has nothing to do with the destinies of 
the country! If the doctrine of Divine Providence is read in 
the Bible, or displayed at all in the destiny of nations hitlierto, 
it is this, that all events, from the greatest to the least, from the 
death of our own illustrious President to that of the meanest 
felon in the land, are ordered wilh strict subserviency to the 
interests of the Christian religion. If Jesus Christ is head over 
all things to the church — if politics, on the grandest scale, are 
but scaffolding to his house, his kingdom, built up and thrown 
down, prospered and confounded, by the Almighty disposer 
of all things in fulfilling to his Son the promise, what kind of 
Christians are they who divorce their religion and their poli- 
tics? The maxim in question, so pervading and popular 
among us, explodes the providence of Christianity, and dis- 
owns, in reality, all interjiosition of heaven in the aflairs of 
men — between infidelity and atheism it vibrates. While Chris- 
tians themselves are mad with this preposterous maxim — while 
the swearer, the gambler, the Sabbath-breaker, the drunkard, 
the debauchee, in short, any man is supported by the suffrages 
of Christians for any olFice, who happens to rally around him 
the favour of a party — while party is the despot, in whose iron 
grasp, liberty^ conscience and religion wither, we see no hope 
for our country. If all true believers, nay, if all who are in 
the visible church throughout our land, were signalized by a 
mark upon their foreheads, because they sigh and cry for the 
abominations done in the midst of the land, a mark of infamy 
on earth, but discrimination to heaven, scarcely might we ven- 
ture to hope, that the angry judgments of God would be aver- 
ted from a people so long accustomed to cast his fear behind 
their back. But when God's own witnesses on earth are so 
treacherous in this great trust, so unmindful of allegiance to 
Jesus Christ, amid the rage of party politics, so basely blended, 



8 

so merely common and undistinguished, where they should be 
pre-eminently "a peculiar people," we tremble for the redemp- 
tion of the country. We cannot, without speedy repentance, 
escape the curse of God, which will make us a by-word and a 
hissing among the nations of the earth. 

Secondly, It is necessary on our part, as a nation abiding 
with God, so as to have his benignant Providence abiding with 
us, that some open acknowledgment of Him be made in a na- 
tional way; and it need scarcely be added, he is never acknowl- 
edged, so as to obtain his favour, when Christ is not acknowl- 
edged, for " the government shall be upon his shoulders." He 
will have all men, individuals and nations, honour the Son, 
even as they honour the Father. To " kings" and "judges of 
the earth," it is the solemn injunction, " Kiss the Son, lest he be 
angry," &c. There is a fearful lack of such acknowledgment 
in the constitution of our country; we lament its silence, so 
much like cold negation of all that is vital to a nation's welfare.' 
The cause of religious liberty did not need that this young and 
mighty republic should be irreligious in her letter, and lift a 
brow of infidelity among the nations of the earth. It was re- 
freshing to the Christian to hear the ex[)licit homage paid the 
Christian religion, in the Inaugural Address of him whose 
sudden decease the nation mourns. It gave a ray of hope 
that a constitution, dead and soulless in its letter towards the 
religion of Jesus, would have some warmth imparted from the 
heart of the Executive; and we yet indulge the hope that, in 
future times, men of God will be elevated to that high seat, 
who will not only carry out the pure principles of liberty 
which that instrument embodies, but shed the light of Heaven 
on its features, by asking counsel for the nation of that God 
whose name it does not mention. Tiiis national acknowledg- 
ment of God, in the only way he will be acknowledged, a 
Christian ivai/, may be made acceptably by a government, if 
not a constitution. And it niny be that " a tenth in the land," 
duly awake to Christian responsibility, and concerned to imbue 
their politics with their religion, may secure the presence of 
God, olTered in the text, even if rulers and constitution be alike 
indilierent; but we Jiave no examples. All history is against 
it. There is not a solitary instance of the real prospering 
providence of God given to a people, whose administration 



of power was confided to irreligious hands. Always have 
nations been blessed or cursed, visited or forsaken of God, as 
their chief rulers were friends or foes at heart to the true reli- 
gion. Even when the wicked ruler has been commissioned 
by Heaven for a special purpose of avenging Providence, as 
Jeroboam and Jehu, he has hardly fulfilled the errand, till he 
becomes, in turn, the source of more grievous calamities to the 
country than ever. 

Thirdly, National acknowledgment of the Christian religion 
in any way would be but mockery, unless the institutions of 
Christianity be honoured by the State. While the Sabbath 
is profaned by law, and usage; while its desecration streams 
through every vein and artery of the body politic — while rail- 
roads and canals, and thoroughfares of every description, are 
open by law, and the mail transported on the Sabbath, so that, 
even civil and religious liberty is trampled, in the disfranchise- 
ment which conscientious citizens endure, when they must 
abandon the authority of God, or forego many an office of trust 
and profit; surely, we cannot have this benign and prosper- 
ing presence of God with the nation. There is enough on 
the statute book to bring down his fury on us much more, to 
forfeit his benignant presence, though every constitution, and 
every ruler in the land, proclaimed the most devout acknowl- 
edgment of Him and his revelation. 

Fourthly, To enjoy this peculiar and prospering presence of 
God with a people, we must not only have a tenth in the land, 
diffusing the savour of Christianity as citizens — and an open 
acknowledgment of God in Christ, either by the constitution, 
or the ruler, or both — and an abiding reverence for all divine 
institutions in the laws, and operations of the government, but 
a special repose on Him for protection, when dangers and diffi- 
culties betide. Such a trust Asa and the people reposed on 
Him when invaded by the Ethiopians. And many examples 
of national confidence in God might be quoted, from the his- 
tory of other princes, whose hearts were perfect towards him. 
This act of public piety, consists in humble encouragement and 
patient waiting on God, hoping that he will interpose for our 
help, when all refuge fails us, and will bring to a favourable issue 
present distresses, even when human resources of wealth and 
wisdom are all exhausted. We cannot be " with him," either 



10 

as individuals, or a nation, without clinging to him in the 
darkness and the storm. We never "seek him so that he will 
be found of us," unless engaged in seeking him "against 
hope," against all near and visible probabilities of relief "0 
trust in the Lord at all times ye people, trust in the Lord for 
ever, for in the Lord Jehovah there is everlasting strength." 

If some one, in the mantle of Azariah the son of Oded, could 
have stood on some high place at Washington, on the last 4th 
of March, to proclaim the words of this text in the hearing of 
a mighty, and honoured chieftain, and in the hearing of the 
patriotic throng around him, it would have been a more suita- 
ble salutation for the ruler and the people by far, than all the 
guns, and trumpets, and dances, which crowned the rejoicing 
of that day. As a congregation of Christians, it becomes us to 
feel with deep humiliation, the unprecedented stroke of afflic- 
tive Providence on this whole nation, in the death of our Chief 
Magistrate. No matter to what party we belong — no matter 
whether v/e aided, or opposed the elevation of that patriot to 
his high place, the actual investment with power gave him, by 
the ordinance of God, a claim on our respect, obedience, affec- 
tion, prayers, and now on the tribute of mourning for his death. 

We cannot but see, that, the Lord's hand is lifted up. It is a 
judgment on the nation, and it becomes us to inquire, "Is there 
not a cause?" "Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this 
land, what meaneth the heat of this great anger ?" Let us not 
forget that it is only in the way of searching for the "' need be," 
and mourning for the stroke, we can have any hope of escaping 
more grievous calamities. " For all this, his anger is not turned 
away, but his hand is stretched out still." 

We have repeatedly dwelt upon the great sin, for which 
Divine Providence has filled our country with embarrassment 
and confusion — the sin of covetousness. " For the iniquity of 
his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him." We might 
dwell now on a long catalogue of national iniquities, at which 
the very sun would darken, as he looks down on a land so fair, 
so favoured. " By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, 
and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth 
blood." But there are some special and peculiar provocations, 
on which we should reflect with humiliation, in view of the 
nation's bereavement at this time. In the first place, there 



11 

was too much dependence placed by his friends on the agency 
of this "arm of flesh" to help the nation out of her troubles 
and perplexities. Instead of being humbled before God for the 
sins that plunged us into unexampled embarrassment of fmance, 
and loss of confidence between man and man, an enthusiastic 
people looked to one old man for the redemption of the country. 
And however trustworthy he was, however competent to guide 
the helm in troublous times, God in jealousy for his own honour, 
as Governor of nations, has taken the idol of undue depend- 
ence and expectation away. Nor is it any less a rebuke to 
those who preferred other rulers, that this one is taken. The 
object of undue and intemperate abuse is now in the grave. If 
his friends were extravagant to idolatry, in praising and lean- 
ing on him, his enemies were excessive to wickedness, in dis- 
paraging his merits, and traducing his character. Both are 
scourged. The one party are disappointed — the other may 
realize more adverse consequences from his death, than they 
ever apprehended from his elevation to power. 

Another proximate cause of this great affliction is the un- 
godly cheer, with which this venerable man was greeted, in 
the testimonials of a people's joy. Balls, routs, fashionable 
assemblies in every variety of that gay, and dissolute amuse- 
ment, against which evangelical Christians every where lift up 
the voice of condemnation, were offered to honour and salute 
the ordinance of God, the elevation of a ruler to his post! 
Many a Christian heart ached at this irreligious demonstration 
of joy, and foreboded some melancholy sequel. jSIany a pa- 
triotic follower of the meek and lowly Jesus sighed, while the 
gala and the dance, the roll of giddy and ungodly pleasure 
greeted the nation's chieftain. "0 foolish people, and unwise, 
thus to requite the Lord," thus to insult his religion, and tram- 
ple on the tender consciences of his people, and degrade the 
worthy object, whom they sought to honour with a flow of 
revelry! The dance is turned to mourning. Is it not seen 
that the prayer of the most obscure, and neglected saint from 
INIaine to Florida, is better for the country, belter for her rulers, 
better for the heart of loyal friendship, than all the music, and 
song, and festival rejoicing, with which the land was ringing? 

The nation mourns. — A soldier, a patriot, her own Chief 
Magistrate, at a crisis so important to the destiny of the nation 



12 

is fallen. Let us honour his memory. But let us see whence 
Cometh the stroke. We need not exclaim, " mysterious proAd- 
dence." If there be aught mysterious in such dealing, the 
mystery is, that all our high places are not desolate, that "the 
speech of the trusty, and the understanding of the aged," are 
not removed, in wrath, from every helm and department of 
government, and a people, so wicked, and ungrateful, left 
without even human ability to manage their affairs. There is 
no mystery in his dispensations towards us, but the riches of 
his goodness and forbearance. Let us return to him that 
smiteth. Let every family apart, and every individual apart, 
mourn for their share of the sin that brings judgment on the 
whole people. Let each individual, and especially each "fel- 
low citizen with the saints" feel greater responsibility for the 
welfare of his country, and do more to diffuse the fear of God 
among the people, and restrain the provocations which call 
down His fiery indignation, and make conscience of praying 
for our beloved country, in the family, and the closet, that God 
may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and avert deserved 
judgments yet impending, and vouchsafe his abiding pre- 
sence and favour, and repair and sanctify the sad calamity we 
mourn. 



THE END. 



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